Sand Scope: An Interactive Installation for Revealing the Connection Between Mental Space and Life Space in a Microcosm of the World

Abstract

In the artwork, the topic of life space has been discussed. Instead of physical space, mental space of human being was considered. People usually focus on themselves to solve various life tasks, and the scales of their mental space influence how they realize the world. The artwork tried to arouse people to aware the connection between mental space and life space. The Sand Scope introduces a microcosm of the world, for comparing the scale of mental space with the scale of the microcosm, from the relative scales between the microcosm and the whole world. From the new perspective, the Sand Scope reminds people to escape from the routine of their daily lives, for rethinking meaning of life. Multimedia input contains gray image analysis to form the stamps with portraits of current audiences and past participants, color image subtraction to compose texture of the mountain drawing with wearing cloth information on the painting, and a buffer with timer to capture and replay ambient sounds continuously in a delayed time, along with color images with blending effect in the period. In the interactive installation, an improvisational painting in the form of a Chinese brush painting with stamps from connoisseurs was exhibited. The generation of stamps from the audiences on the painting also indicates that they are parts of the microcosm. The microcosm was constructed from the elements of the inhabitants who live in the real world in physical aspect, and the awareness of meaning of life implies harmony between nature and humanity on the Zen painting in mental aspect.